Thea was sitting in her room and flipping through the classifieds sections of the days newspaper with a look of distress on her face. She was beginning to feel hopeless, certain now that she was never going to be hired anywhere. To make matters worse, the classifieds section she was looking through was from the Elorian Times, and somehow she felt like the newspaper was mocking her.

So sure that she would get the job at the Times, she hadn't even thought of any backup ideas. She also had never considered the fact that she would now have to hide that she had a graduate degree. If looking into her thesis was going to prevent her from getting a job, then she had no other choice than to hide it... even if she believed that everything she wrote was completely and utterly right.

Frustrated, she slammed her pen onto the desk and leaned back, running her fingers through her very long, black hair. It was summer and the heat was sometimes overwhelming during the day, so the feeling of air cooling the back of her neck as she knotted her hair into a bun relaxed her a little. Of course, that relaxing sensation was temporary and almost immediately after, she was reminded yet again of her interview yesterday.

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her desk as she ran her thumb a little absentmindedly over a scar she had on her left ear. The thought of the two soldiers then filled her with a rush of annoyance. Of course the Times would fear hiring someone like her if there was a soldier in the room.

But really, why were they even there to begin with?

Was it an intimidation tactic?

Wasn't it illegal to try and suppress the media?

After a moment, that thought made Thea chuckle to herself at her own ridiculousness. It didn't matter if it was illegal or not. That Aiverian State Military did whatever they wanted... she knew that just as well as any other Elorian did.

So she stared rather bitterly at the paper for some time before she picked up her pen and reminded herself that none of that mattered now.

What mattered was her finding a job. A good job.

However, just as she began to read through the pages again, something grabbed her attention from the corner of her eye. She turned, looking out the window that sat just to the right of her desk, and saw a man push their front gate open and walk in.

The sight of the man almost instantly caused her heart to stop as she easily recognized the black uniform with the gold accents and the black hat with the gold band around it. It was the same uniform she saw yesterday... though most certainly not the same person.

It was a State Officer.

A massive one at that.

Whoever this man was, he was easily well over six feet tall... a giant, really.

She watched the man cross through her front yard, her mind racing with both curiosity and fear before the thought of her brother flashed through her mind. The thought made her stand just before hearing the ringing of their doorbell, a rush of panic filling her as all the possible scenarios rushed through her head.

Had her brother done something crazy?

Had they killed him?

Or worse, had they captured him?

Or were they here to take him?

Thea considered rushing downstairs to her mother in an attempt to stop her from opening the door, but by the time she reached the top of the staircase, she heard the door open and her mother's voice greet the officer. "Officer..." her mother started cautiously.

"Ms. Rhaanan, I presume?" The man said. She could not see him from where she was standing, but she noted that his voice was deep and rather emotionless.

"Yes, that's me."

"I am Captain Julian Brayne and I'm here looking for your daughter, Miss. Theavi Rhaanan."

Thea's brows rose.

Me?

"M-my daughter?" She heard the surprise in her mother's voice. "Whatever for?"

"Unfortunately, that is confidential, ma'am."

Thea's mother hesitated. "You have to understand, Officer... when a soldier of the State comes asking for my daughter I must ask for more information."

"Again, ma'am, that is confidential," he said. "What I can say is that you have no reason to worry. Please retrieve your daughter at once as we have a tight schedule and cannot waste any time."

"But..." Thea could hear her mother beginning to protest, but worried for her mother's safety, she made her way down the stairs. Her mother should have known that arguing with a State Officer was a waste of time.

When she reached a spot on the staircase where the soldier could see her, his eyes drifted up and locked with hers. "Theavi Rhaanan?"

"Yes, that's me," she responded, feigning confidence and standing with her shoulders back and chin up. While looking at him, she realized he really was a giant, his head only barely fitting under the doorframe. In fact, he also had broad shoulders and a relatively heavy build, making him look even larger than most men, and aside from the classic green eyes and brown hair of the Aiverians, she also noticed that he wore a rather blank expression on his face.

The soldier gave her a nod which she assumed was meant to be a greeting. "We were hoping to have a quick word with you. Do you mind coming with me?"

Thea swallowed but her throat was too dry. "Can you tell me what this is about?"

"Not here," was his response. "Feel free to get dressed, but please hurry. The General is waiting outside for you."

General? She thought. What the hell would a General want with her?

But of course, Thea knew what this was about.

Laila had tried to warn her, after all.

Without waiting for a response, the soldier touched his cap in a way of greeting before turning and walking back outside. His posture was perfect and he stood tall as he stepped out, clearly not phased at all by his own height.

As soon as she shut the door, her mother turned to her, terror on her face. "Thea, why did you come downstairs?" She asked. "I was going to say you weren't home!"

"You think they would have left it at that, Ma?" Thea responded, grabbing her mother's hand and pulling her up the stairs. "That's not how those buffoons work."

"You cannot go with them!" Her mother said as they went to Thea's room. "They..."

"I have no choice," Thea said. She noticed then that her hands were beginning to shake, and in order to hide them, she grabbed a brush and began brushing her hair to make herself more presentable, ignoring that the brushing of her hair seemed to make her more anxious.

Thea's mother looked at her with the same black eyes that she had. Fear and sadness filled them and she clenched her fists. "Nothing good ever happens to a girl who leaves with a State Officer," she said.

Nothing good.

Hearing 'nothing good' and 'State' in the same sentence was common here in the Elorian Province.

"You cannot go."

Thea began to pin the top half of her hair up, still trying to hide her shaking hands.

"Think about Amara, love," her mother said, her voice dropping to a desperate whisper. "It is not safe for an Elorian girl..."

Of course, at this point Thea's efforts to veil her shaking were useless. especially since all she could think of now was Amara.

Though Amara's story was not unique in Abureth, hers was the one everyone remembered... a beautiful girl who was taken by the State Military a little over five years ago because she spoke up against a soldier's harassments, and then the townsfolk found her in a ditch, dead, a couple days later.

"And if you refuse to consider your own safety then think of your brother," her mother continued. "When Amara was taken, you know what happened to Aaryan... he was just a sweet young boy and even he ran off and joined the Crows because he was so angry!"

The mention of Aaryan, a boy who was once Thea's closest friend, made her heart ache. So broken by what had happened to his sister, at just sixteen years old he left everything and everyone he loved and joined the Crows.

They never saw him ever again, as was what happened with many young men who joined the Crows.

Though the Crows were technically on the side of the Elorians, they weren't always the heroes that her people asked for, and for all Thea knew, her old friend was probably dead in some ditch as well. She spent years trying not to think of it, but the truth of it all was hitting her hard at this moment.

"Your brother loves you, Thea... and he is no sweet young boy," her mother pushed. "You know that if you are in any sort of danger he will come after you with that goddamn weapon of his... they will kill him, Thea."

She knew her mother was right. But Thea wasn't beautiful like Amara, she knew that very well, they weren't taking her for that reason. Instead, she had said some things at her interview yesterday that could be deemed treasonous... and there were two state soldiers listening in.

This was her own fault and she had to deal with it

Suddenly, she felt her stomach turn as she was reminded of her time in University again, the feeling of her hair touching her skin sending a shiver through her.

It was her fault.

"At least wait until your brother gets home!" Her mother begged.

"Are you crazy?" Thea snapped. "You already know how Theus would react, Mama, you said it yourself... if we wait for him, they could take him too... and they'll do worse to him when they find out he's a Crow."

The colour drained from her mother's face.

One of the reasons for why Thea had such a complicated relationship with the Crows was in fact, because of her brother. Those thugs had brainwashed him. They changed him. They were exactly the reason why Thea cherished any good moments she had with her brother, just like the kindness he showed her last night. It was rare these days, seeing as the ways of the Crows in Abureth seemed to rub off on him.

And now he was one of them too– and she wasn't going to risk dragging him into this.

If the State found out about him, he would be arrested, tortured and then killed.

She wasn't going to get him involved.

"I'll be fine," she said after picking up her crossbody purse and putting it over her shoulder. She then turned and gave her mother a smile. "I'll be fine," she repeated. "Make sure Theus knows it."

Her mother knew she was lying, and she also knew that telling Theus that would be worthless. "Thea–"

She walked past her mother and down the corridor to the staircase. "For all we know, they might actually just want to talk to me," she said as she made her way down the stairs. "I will deal with this," she said, trying to sound confident. "You know me. You know I can handle myself. I will handle this."

Her mother continued to try and convince Thea to leave through the back door as she put on her shoes, but Thea was more than certain that she would not do anything to further put her family at risk.

It was stupid.

Her decision to write her thesis was stupid and selfish.

She should have known even back then that she would be putting her family at risk, even if her idea's weren't particularly radical. Any talk of Elore being a separate state should never have left her.

This is what happens when you speak out against the State.

This was her fault, and she wasn't going to let her family suffer because of her stupidity.

Her mother stopped speaking as soon as Thea opened the door, seeing that Captain Brayne was standing near the gate, waiting. "Thank you for being quick," he said, walking over to the car that was parked at the other side of the gate. "This way, Miss. Rhaanan."

Thea's mother grabbed her arm tightly. When she turned and looked at her teary eyed mother, she gave her a tight lipped smile before saying once more, "I'll be fine," trying to reassure her before turning and proceeding to make her way towards the car.

She walked towards Captain Brayne while gripping tightly onto the strap of her bag, and though she tried her hardest to not look terrified, she had a strong feeling that she wasn't doing a good job.

When she reached the car, however, she hesitated.

In the midst of all her fear and panic, she hadn't realized that this soldier had arrived... in a car. Not the usual military jeep that the soldiers drove around in, and not the mysterious white vans that young men who were suspected of being Crows were often wary of.

No. This was just a car.

Well, not just any car.

It was a Rolls Royce.

Thea's knowledge of cars was rather extensive thanks to her brother, an engineering graduate who was now a mechanic with a fascination for all things motorized. His fascination was the reason why, as children, the two of them would sit in front of magazines and photo books, flipping through the pages and marveling at the shiny vehicles that her brother had dreamed of building one day. Thus, his fascination was also why she was able to figure out that this sleek black limousine was a Rolls Royce Phantom... a kind of car that Thea was certain no one in Elore owned. It was certainly a Presidential car.

Or, Thea supposed, a General's car.

And it was also certainly gathering the attention of quite a few of her neighbors who were now peeking out from their windows, others going as far as to come out and stare, mouths agape at the sight, but arms crossed defensively in response to the presence of a State Officer.

It wasn't every day that you saw something so luxurious sitting on the side of the old roads of Abureth Town.

Aside from that, Thea also realized that now everyone was going to see her be taken away.

As Captain Brayne opened the back door for her, a door that opened backwards, Thea found a little humor in herself to think that if the State Military was trying to get rid of her... at least it was going to be in style.

She knew no one who was transported to their death in a Rolls Royce... let alone having the door opened for them by a Captain.

Seeing Thea's hesitation, Captain Brayne gestured into the car, and after taking a deep breath, she made her way into the spacious back seat, keeping her eyes on her home and her worried, terrified looking mother the whole time.

In the hopes of calming her, Thea smiled as warmly as she could. Her mother responded by turning away and running back into the house... probably in an attempt to figure out who to call for help.

Then, without wasting any more time, Captain Brayn shut the door, made his way to the driver's seat and began to drive off, the Rolls Royce rumbling softly.

Thea chose to force herself to be distracted. So, in a means of calming herself down, she began admiring the expensive looking wooden interior of the car. She even found herself thinking about how she had never sat in a seat so comfortable before, despite the situation.

But the oddness of this situation certainly called for some strange thoughts.

This was, after all, a kind of luxury that people didn't associate with death.

Thea reached out and touched the polished wood on the inside of the door gently with her fingertips, feeling the smooth yet cool interior while reflecting on the fact that her brother would have loved a chance to see this.

A small smile formed on her face at the thought of her brother, though it faded almost instantly, remembering that she may never see him again.

"Good afternoon."

The sudden deep voice that she knew was not Captain Brayne made her jump in her seat, pushing herself right up against the door as she turned to her right and saw that there was a man sitting there right next to her, looking at her with raised brows.

Dumbfounded by the fact that he was literally a foot away from her and she hadn't noticed him, Thea put a hand over her racing heart and let out a loud breath.

"Pardon me," the man said. "My intentions were not to startle you."

She was practically speechless as she remembered that Captain Brayne had said that the General was the one who wanted to speak to her.

This was the General.

And as she stared at the man, she realized very quickly that she knew exactly who he was. Well, she didn't know him directly, but she knew of him. Everyone knew of this man in one way or another.

It was General Niall Killian.

The half-blood.

She could see it just by looking at him. He had many traits of an Elorian, including their pitch black hair... but he also had the light, green eyes of an Aiverian.

Of course, mixed children were not necessarily uncommon... but mixed children in power? That was certainly a rarity, and so he caught the attention of nearly everyone in the nation. He was different, so everyone talked about him, as people often did with those who are different.

Among the Crows, Thea knew that he was despised. They called him a traitor to his blood because he had supposedly gotten his power by using his Elorian side to gain the trust of the Crows, before outing them all. Apparently he was the reason the Crows lost the Civil War.

And now he was not only a General, but also the Deputy Secretary of Defense. He was the right hand man of the Secretary of Defense, a criminal in his own right, and worked directly under the President himself.

That was the man who was sitting just a foot away from her, the man she hadn't even noticed.

"Sorry," Thea started, adjusting herself in her seat again. "I just..." Her voice trailed off when she noticed something else, an anxiousness rushing into her. As she looked closely at his eyes, she realized quite quickly that she didn't just know of him from the pictures in the newspapers or the stories on the radio.

She had seen him before. In person.

This man was the one who was staring at her during her interview.

She hadn't noticed his hair then... but it was really just the look of his eyes that she needed to see to know that this was most certainly him.

So she was right.

They were taking her because of the interview.

"It's fine," the man said, tapping his finger on a thick folder that sat on his lap. "I'm sure this is all a surprise to you. You must be quite confused and wondering why you are here."

"Yes," Thea agreed, trying to figure out what was going to happen to her. She must be in real trouble if a man as powerful as this came to get her himself. Had she really done something that wrong? Was messing with the Elorian Times that much of a risk? What was going to happen to her?

But before her racing thoughts could take over, she let out a soft sigh, lowering her shoulders and reminding herself to be strong.

She couldn't show weakness. If this was the end, then she needed to stand her ground. She couldn't crumble simply because she was scared as she would have done in the past.

Not again.

She wouldn't do that again.

So she looked right at him, and when her eyes fell on him, she swallowed back her nerves. Strangely, despite the situation, as her eyes fixated on the man's face while he opened up his folder, she couldn't help but linger on the thought of how handsome he was.

He was incredibly put together, with his uniform looking spotless and perfectly pressed, his face cleanly shaved and his hair combed back neatly... he was an attractive man... a thought that usually didn't come to Thea's mind when thinking of a State Officer.

His features were chiseled, with low brows and a strong jawline, and Thea could tell that he was certainly fit... though she supposed that he had to be in order to be a military man.

But what really caught her attention were simply his eyes.

Thea had seen those eyes many times before. Not just because she had seen those exact eyes just the day before, but those eyes, the eyes of the Aiverian, were the same eyes that would often fill her with a sense of anxiety every single time they glanced in her direction. Even among the Aiverians who were kind to her or didn't even notice her presence... their eyes would make her look away.

She, as well as many of her kind, had conditioned themselves into believing that the people who had those eyes were judging them... they thought they were better, and even in situations where Thea knew that was not the case at all, sometimes she couldn't help but feel that way... even if she knew that it was wrong and not fair to think like that.

She couldn't help herself... she couldn't help but be a little scared. She had her reasons.

However, something was different with this man.

Sure, she still felt like he may be judging her, or that he assumed he was better than her, but she was drawn to the fact that the black of his hair, specifically his brows and his very dark lashes around his eyes, made his light green eyes look a lot lighter... almost gray, even. And it was somewhat hypnotic... almost like you couldn't look away.

It actually took Thea some effort to pull her eyes away from him, reminding herself that he was not just a State Officer, but the head of the Aiverian Army and one of the highest ranking men in the Department of Defense.

She could certainly continue to feign confidence and strength, but this was not someone you locked eyes with.

"So, you are Theavi Rhaanan, correct?"

"Yes."

He nodded, keeping his eyes on the pages in front of him. "High school graduate of Abureth College, undergraduate degree from A.N.U. and graduate degree from the University of Eloria?"

"Yes."

"Mother, Ahlayne Rhaanan, father, Rokura Rhaanan... and a brother, Theus Rhaanan?"

She hesitated. "Yes."

"Right," he said as he shut the folder and looked at her. "I'll cut to the chase then. For reasons I can not disclose at this moment, the Department of Defense has been looking into you for a little while now and they've brought me some very interesting information. Information which has brought me here."

Thea felt her heart stop.

She knew it.

This was it.

"This information... well, I've had the interesting opportunity of getting a vague understanding of your family history, looking into your library records and," he patted the folder in his lap, "I even had a chance to read your thesis."

She knotted her fingers together, pressing them hard into her lap in an attempt to hide her shaking hands.

Stop beating around the bush, asshole. She thought. Just get to it.

"In addition to that, my comrade and I also sat in on your interview yesterday," he continued, reminding Thea that it wasn't just a regular soldier that sat in on her interview. He was the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the General of the Aiverian Army. Somehow her outburst now felt embarrassing, though she still stood by her words. "And what we noticed is that it seems like you still maintain some of these views," he said. "These views which are rather... different."

So she really wasn't going to come out of this alright. She was either going to prison, or she was going to be killed. Of course, knowing the Aiverian State, she would prefer death to prison any day. The State Prisons were not good to Elorians.

At that moment, she reminded herself that she wasn't going to cower. She wasn't going to beg for forgiveness or anything of that sort. There was no point in that. From all the stories she had heard and all the newspapers she had read, she knew that once the State suspected you, it was over. It didn't matter if you had an excuse or an alternate explanation.

Once an Elorian had the attention of the State, that was it.

So she would let this man know that she stood by what she said. At least she would go down honorably.

Though her family would be devastated, at least they could also be proud.

And this man would certainly not forget her and what she had to say.

"Yes, I still maintain those views," she started. "I don't see what's wrong with wanting to fight hatred with education."

"What benefit do you think you get out of having such a view, Miss. Rhannan?" He asked. "Do you think you can change the world? Do you think that you can write a thesis and suddenly the State will decide that yes, you're right. We should publish the stories of the Crows and let everyone know why they fight, we should publicize the crimes of the State against Elorians, we should teach the history of the Elorian's in schools so that everyone knows that the Province of Elore belongs to the Elorians. Do you think that's how this works?"

Thea hesitated.

"The way I see it, you have thoughts and views that are attempting to poke and prod at the State, and you are only moments away from saying something that is going to get its attention, which can only lead to trouble, as I'm sure you already know."

"The way I see it," Thea countered, "I seem to have already gotten the State's attention."

The General tilted his head to the side. "I suppose you're right... or at the very least, you have gotten my attention. Whether or not that's a good thing depends entirely on you."

Thea didn't know what he meant by that, but she continued anyway, sitting up straight and trying to look confident. "My intention with my thesis was to get my thoughts out there. What I actually hoped was that I would get a job at the Elorian Times to start doing what I wrote about in my thesis, but that failed because the presence of you and your comrade scared the interviewers into rejecting me," she clarified. "And you're missing half the point... my research focused on exposing the State, yes, but it also focused on exposing the Crows. Though the State has done substantially worse, the Crows are not necessarily innocent. My research focused on exposing anyone who does wrong. It focused on sharing peoples stories to prove the significance of transparency and education in bringing people together. Transparency and education in regards to everything."

The man kept his eyes focused on her and his rather unreadable features made it hard for her to figure out if he was interested in what she was saying, or angry. "Alright, I understand that, yes, but my argument still stands. Do you really believe people are going to agree with you and simply change their ways?" He watched her carefully. "Don't you think you're being rather idealistic?"

"People don't need to agree with me. They just need to know," she said, firmly. "They just need to know what's really happening."

The General nodded his head slowly.

"Besides, being an idealist is better than murdering innocent people... it's better than killing them all before they have a chance to believe in the fact that a better world exists, don't you think?" She asked. "That's what you lot do, isn't it, murder people before they get a chance to think of better things?"

General Killian was certainly taken aback by her words. She watched his eyes flicker down at her hands and knew that despite her strong words, he could see how hard she was trying to hide her shaking. Looking almost satisfied by the sight, he glanced back at her with his ghostly eyes. "It doesn't look like I need to remind you that you are speaking to not only the Head of the Aiverian Army, but also the Deputy Secretary of Defense?"

"No, you don't need to remind me, but if you're planning on killing me then I might as well speak my mind."

The General raised a brow, a smirk forming on his face. "Kill you?" he let out a short laugh, his eyes flickering over to Captain Brayne, who Thea could see through the rear view mirror, was smiling. When the General looked back at Thea, he surprised her by giving her a kinder, softer smile... something she had not expected. "Miss. Rhaanan, I don't want to kill you. I want to hire you."

Thea's eyes widened as she stared at him in shock for quite a few moments.

"What?"